Thursday, August 18, 2011

Public Conversation

Since my husband has no sense of smell and can overlook Sam's dirty diapers because he fails to notice they are there (this really is the case, though I once suspected otherwise), we tried to devise a plan to alert us when he needs a change.  Sam is also happy to continue playing and not have a diaper change, because that is very disruptive when one is involved in wheeling trucks or running around.
I have been trying to solve this problem for a while, so I decided to become proactive and teach Sam to tell us when he has pooped.  I figured this was also a step towards potty training (I have zero experience in this field), if he could verbalize that he had a dirty diaper, could he at some point verbalize before he pooped?
Anyway, it has been months, but he has started saying, "poo-poo," to let us know that it is there (for those of us who can't smell it a mile away).  This was great for few days and I gave him lots of praise for it.  Until we were at Target.  I saw the Poo face as he sat in the cart and knew what was coming.  I also had a list in my head of what we needed to buy and I was two items from completing it.  Sam looked at me and enthusiastically proclaimed, "poo-poo!"  I smiled and agreed, yes, there was a poo-poo and we would change it in a minute.  For those of you who don't shop at Target, the bathroom is at the front of the store after you go through the registers and you cannot take unpaid for merchandise into it.  I had a good ten items in my cart from all over the store and figured that I could grab what I needed, quickly check out, and change him on the way out, in all of five minutes.  I didn't count on Sam telling me repeatedly about his "poo-poo," or telling the lady in the card aisle, or the one behind me in line, "poo-poo."  Now I felt like the neglectful mother who was pretending her kid wasn't the stinky one.  Luckily they both seemed like motherly types and just smiled.
Sam's other trick lately is naming body parts.  On the list of body parts is "en-is"= penis, and in case you aren't sure he grabs his crouch to show you, and "boob," which was actually his first word though it is not in his baby book.  His Dad taught him that when I was still breastfeeding.  He used to say it complete with the dumb guy laugh, "Boob.  Heh-heh-heh," except that it was kind of cute.  Now he names body parts and points to them in public.  Complete with "en-is," grab, "boob. Mama." attempted grab.  Me blushing and not making eye contact with anyone around us.  I am working on the part where some conversations are quiet and for at home.
It's going to be great when he can speak in full sentences.

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